The Power Ministry said that it has achieved the milestone of electrifying 13,000 un-electrified villages against a target of providing electricity to 18,452 such settlements by 2018 as envisaged by PM Narendra Modi. “Out of 18,452 villages, over 13,000 villages have been electrified as on date,” the Power Ministry said in a statement. Earlier in 2015, Modi had announced in his Independence Day speech that all un-electrified villages (18,452) will be electrified in the next 1,000 days i.e, by 1 May 2018. “It is a moment of pride as we have electrified over 13,000 out of 18,452 villages. The remaining villages will be electrified by May 2018,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal had tweeted. According to the Garv portal which provides real-time data on rural electrification, as many as 13,028 villages have been electrified so far, which constitutes 71 per cent of the target.